Most people don't really see more than a few cities, I'd say. More if they can afford the vacations and airlines, of course.
[settling down after giving the other his water bottle, Vael watches the two. Daniel is quite happy to accept pets, snuggling right up to the Caelestite despite just having met him. It's nice to see, he thinks. Kind of a relief...]
But for me, most of the outside world was just seen from the eyes of someone learning to pickpocket and entertain, yeah. Even as a part of a pretty popular magic troupe, it's all through the lens of the circumstance. Why we were there, how we got there.
[Which brings them to the elephant in the room. The actual goings-on, everything that happened. Vael makes a sour face, taking a drink of his water.]
Daniel has always been too trusting. He's big and intimidating, but... he's always been like this. One day, I guess he decided I was worth protecting. It wasn't unusual, me being the easy excuse.
I didn't have anything. No one to talk to, nowhere to go, so I just... took it. Didn't really matter what they did - if I was still alive, I guessed that was that. [He can still remember a lot of it. Broken bones, bloody noses. Endless streams of verbal abuse levied at him...] Daniel changed all that.
Lions are... expensive, especially as stage performers. They didn't want to scar him since it would be obvious there was mistreatment happening. [His eyes close for just a moment, before he reaches over to scritch behind one of Daniel's ears.] But he got between them and me every time. Never really intended to hurt anyone, I think.
Anyway, they just threw me in the cage with him, after a while. I was taking care of his wounds, and he... God, he was trying to comfort me even from the start.
[And Vael had lashed out, both out of fear for Daniel and frustration at his own helplessness. He may never outgrow that guilt, all things considered.]
Oop, cw: abuse
[settling down after giving the other his water bottle, Vael watches the two. Daniel is quite happy to accept pets, snuggling right up to the Caelestite despite just having met him. It's nice to see, he thinks. Kind of a relief...]
But for me, most of the outside world was just seen from the eyes of someone learning to pickpocket and entertain, yeah. Even as a part of a pretty popular magic troupe, it's all through the lens of the circumstance. Why we were there, how we got there.
[Which brings them to the elephant in the room. The actual goings-on, everything that happened. Vael makes a sour face, taking a drink of his water.]
Daniel has always been too trusting. He's big and intimidating, but... he's always been like this. One day, I guess he decided I was worth protecting. It wasn't unusual, me being the easy excuse.
I didn't have anything. No one to talk to, nowhere to go, so I just... took it. Didn't really matter what they did - if I was still alive, I guessed that was that. [He can still remember a lot of it. Broken bones, bloody noses. Endless streams of verbal abuse levied at him...] Daniel changed all that.
Lions are... expensive, especially as stage performers. They didn't want to scar him since it would be obvious there was mistreatment happening. [His eyes close for just a moment, before he reaches over to scritch behind one of Daniel's ears.] But he got between them and me every time. Never really intended to hurt anyone, I think.
Anyway, they just threw me in the cage with him, after a while. I was taking care of his wounds, and he... God, he was trying to comfort me even from the start.
[And Vael had lashed out, both out of fear for Daniel and frustration at his own helplessness. He may never outgrow that guilt, all things considered.]